I have enjoyed two series on Netflix so thoroughly that I feel I have to climb a mountain top and scream their names.

The first is An Idiot Abroad. Ricky Gervais sends a “friend” who he deems and idiot, who we find out is far from one, around the world. The thing is, his friend, Carl, is not an adventurous or open minded fellow and pretty much hates every minute of it. Sounds horrible to watch but it isn’t. Carl is, without trying, hilarious. He gives profound insights into life, culture, people etc. the whole time. He is an accidental genius. He also visits some amazing places and always stays in the worse arrangements (by design) which gives even more insights into the places he is going. The Rio episode is great! There are three seasons total.

The second is The Long Way Round. Ewan McGregor, and a friend take a trip around the world on motorbikes. They start in London, cross Europe to the Pacific, fly to the US and continue to NY. IT IS HARD!!!!! I was blown away how a Hollywood star would take on such a challenge and conquer it like a boss. You have to watch to see what I am talking about. It is beautifully filmed and again, a lot of insights into life, cultures, people, etc. I was sad when it ended. The follow up, The Long Way Down, where they go from Scotland to Cape Town was equally good.

Not seen either, and shamelessly riding on the coat-tails of your post: some TV Series I have really enjoyed since living in Brazil:

1. Breaking Bad – Season Six just announced for 2015, although I hope they don’t flog a dead horse with this one.2. Hannibal – loved all of the TV series. Dark, Dark and Darker again.3. Fargo – the TV Series.

4. Bates Motel – a young Norman Bates, and his mother, played by Vera Farmiga, who I think I am in love with.

all but the last one on brasilian cable, or pirate bay, or eztv.it:the last shipcovert affairsintelligence (canceled, but 1st season on here and worth it)the leftoversthe blacklistthe lotterybetter than any of these is “the killing,” based on a danish series. netflix rescued it from cancellation for a fourth stunning season. if you’ve never seen it, start with season 1.

Leblon, if you like White CollarI believe you’ll enjoy The Blacklistwhich fellow poster norah just listed. I know one of the episode writers (there is an overlap on both, moving from originally White Collarand now onto The Blacklist which is now in production for its second season. So the two shows are very much in the same vein).And yes, of course The Killingis quality all the way. The plot twist at the end of the third season (of the original Danish series) completely saw my jaw dropping to the floor.picolino2014-08-28 16:19:47

[QUOTE=picolino]And yes, of course The Killingis quality all the way. The plot twist at the end of the third season (of the original Danish series) completely saw my jaw dropping to the floor.[/QUOTE]yeah, season 3 was the best. each season is a different case, but start with season 1 anyway for the character development.i also like “murder in the first,” which is steven bochco’s redo of his “murder one,” though this one is a serial of one case.“covert affairs” is the one i look forward to the most every week.

For TV series I use kickass.to and then save them to a media server. I use OpenElec as a media client that I connect to my TV, and recently have used a Raspberry PI mini-PC as a client, which is cheap, and works well. For anyone with a fairly modern SmartTV that can download Apps, I would recommend PLEX media server and the Plex App on the TV – this allows you to watch all your films and TV series on a local server or network attached storage device on your TV over the home network. If you want a simpler solution, most USB hard drives can connect to a TV these days, and let you browse the content on the drive via your TV with direct playback – you wont get the fancy artwork and synopsis for each episode, but it’s no harder than saving the TV series to the hard drive, plugging it into the tv and watching the thing!

Incidentally, I had lots of people recommending The Wire – I tried it, and I really tried to like it, but I just could not get into it. It was too much in the way of fast dialogue, and too American for me to keep up with. The characters all seemed to talk in short bursts, and I struggled with the accents and what they were saying, or what they meant – I was really quite taken aback at how difficult it was for me to follow. I might give it another go (as I have three series downloaded) but has anyone else tried it and liked it?

Prison Break was another one that I have never watched but have on a hard drive, along with 24 – another one that I have never seen a single episode of, but lots of people raved about. I only discovered Lost after it was finished, and was then hooked on the thing, watching all the series in a period of three months…

[QUOTE=finrudd] The characters all seemed to talk in short bursts, and I struggled with the accents and what they were saying, or what they meant – I was really quite taken aback at how difficult it was for me to follow.

[/QUOTE]

That’s very racist of you!!!!

I’m joking of course. The “urban” characters are difficult for me to understand and I am American! But I LOVED the Wire. One of the best TV dramas ever IMO.

these are all great shows, though i never got into “the wire” but still keep it on my media drive for that rainy month. if you’re digging into the past and have tired of cops and their ilk, but still want that juice and clever dialogue, look at “damages,” starring glenn close (probably her best role ever as a conniving, cuthroat lawyer), rose byrne (as a wannabe conniving, cuthroat lawyer) and ted danson (as a conniving, cutthroat criminal, in the first season). this was a show that, like GoT and some of the other top addictions, people just about died waiting for the next episode. five seasons.

in addition to eztv.it, which almost exclusively offers tv shows and events, i’d like to promote a site called torrenting.com, which bills itself as “a very tiny movie torrent site.” it’s free, the inventory is modest compared with pirate bay, but you can find “just in the theater” films there before other sites. it relies heavily on members seeding, and you can be booted if you don’t seed enough. some of the flicks are of a quality you wouldn’t want to watch, but some are high quality; you have to check the samples images and clips, as well as viewers’ comments.contributors do an especially good job providing cult films and classics. you can also find video games and other material.i’m passing it on because i want to see this site succeed. may not be your cup of tea, but check it out.

[/QUOTE]i’ve watched a few episodes, got sidetracked by my regular favorites, but i’ll get back to it. very weird but compelling. it’s what happens/will happen when a global event causes society as we know it to break down completely.

[QUOTE=The Abbot]I tried starting the new Ricky Gervais comedy series Derek but could not get through the first episode. People keep telling me it picks up and becomes borderline genius. Has anybody dug into this one?[/QUOTE]

No – but it is one I meant to try and then forgot. Thanks for the reminder.

Thanks to all the posts’ suggestion, my husband and I started watching the killing. We did all four seasons in less than a month. Just could not stopped watching it. We loved it. I almost cried at the end because it was over for good. Thanks!Mona2014-12-29 20:55:52

a bunch of folks back home recommended ‘the affair.’ i downloaded the season, watched the first two and found it plodding. but it’s one of the few shows the new york times does a weekly roundup of, and a couple of reviews said it gathers steam in later episodes. so i’ll find out, but not right away. meanwhile, i’ve started watching ‘marco polo’ on netflix. it’s got my attention.and don’t wait for brasilian tv to show ‘downton abbey’ again. season 5 is long over, so get it somewhere else. the season 5 christmas special is really special – a big surprise!let me pitch torrenting DOT com again, too. it’s a great little site. now that we’re upon awards season, people are getting hold of dvds distributed by the studios for oscar votes. you’re rewarded for seeding and punished for not. as for tv shows, eztv deserves our support. they were busted by swedish authorities but came back full strength. probably the most reliable site because of assigned uploaders, not just any riffraff out there offering potentially infected files.